Officers, Trustees & Counselors

Members of the board of trustees in May 2012. Photo: © Glave

The Board of Trustees of the American Academy in Berlin is comprised of 34 influential leaders from the worlds of business, publishing, academia, and politics. Eighteen members are American; 16 members are German. The board meets twice per year, once in November, in New York City, and once in May, in Berlin.

Founder

Richard C. Holbrooke (1941-2010) - U.S. Ambassador, Diplomat, and Author

Founding Chairmen

Thomas L. Farmer - Consultants International Group, Inc.
Henry A. Kissinger - Kissinger Associates, Inc.
Richard von Weizsäcker - Former Federal President of West Germany

Chairman & President

A. Michael Hoffman - Palamon Capital Partners, LP

Vice Chair

Gahl Hodges Burt

Co-Secretaries

Stephen B. Burbank - University of Pennsylvania
John C. Kornblum - Noerr, LLP

Trustees

Barbara Balaj - The World Bank
Manfred Bischoff - Daimler AG
Caroline Walker Bynum - Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Mathias Döpfner - Axel Springer AG
Niall Ferguson - Harvard University
Marina Kellen French
Michael E. Geyer - Samuel N. Harper Professor of German and European History, and Faculty Director, Human Rights Program, University of Chicago
Hans-Michael Giesen - Giesen Heidbrink
Richard K. Goeltz - Retired Vice-Chairman and CFO, American Express
C. Boyden Gray - Boyden Gray & Associates
Vartan Gregorian - Carnegie Corporation of New York
Andrew S. Gundlach - Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder Advisors LLC
Helga Haub - The Tengelmann Group
Dirk Ippen - Founder, RI Digital Ventures GmbH
Wolfgang Ischinger - Allianz SE
Josef Joffe - Die Zeit
Michael Klein - M. Klein and Company LLC
Regine Leibinger - Barkow Leibinger Architekten
Wolfgang Malchow - Robert Bosch GmbH
Julie Mehretu - Artist, New York
Jeffrey A. Rosen - Lazard LLC
Volker Schlöndorff - Filmmaker
Peter Y. Solmssen - Siemens AG
Kurt F. Viermetz - Former Vice Chairman, JPMorgan
Stefan von Holtzbrinck - Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
Nina von Maltzahn
Christopher von Oppenheim
Pauline Yu - American Council of Learned Societies

Honorary Trustees

Klaus Wowereit (ex-officio) - Governing Mayor of Berlin

Chairman Emeritus

Karl M. von der Heyden - Former Vice Chairman, PepsiCo, Inc.

Trustees Emeriti

John P. Birkelund - Saratoga Partners
Diethart Breipohl - Allianz SE
Gerhard Casper - Stanford University
Wolfgang Mayrhuber - Lufthansa AG
Norman Pearlstine - Bloomberg LP
Fritz Stern - Columbia University

Senior Counselors

Richard Gaul - Deutscher Rat für Public Relations
Franz Xaver Ohnesorg - Stiftung Klavier-Festival Ruhr
Karen Roth
Victoria Scheibler
Bernhard von der Planitz - Former German Consul General to the U.S.